The invention relates to a method and a device for locating at least one object.
In a lot of areas it is necessary to be able to localize objects, in particular mobile devices in open areas or also in closed rooms. Localization in this context has to be understood such that the spatial relations of the objects among each other and/or the spatial relation of the object relative to a reference system, as a fixed space, are determined.
It is clear that this also includes mixed forms of the localization in case of which for instance the position of a first mobile device is determined relatively to a fixed reference system and then the positions of further mobile devices are determined relative to the position of the first mobile device. It is also possible for instance only to determine the distance of the objects, for instance of two mobile devices, among each other.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,246 B1 for instance a system is known in which mobile devices emit acoustic signals by itself in order to allow a localization of the mobile devices.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,118 B1 a system is for instance known by which time differences can be determined between two microphones when receiving.
An identification system is known from US 2006/0077759 in which different transmitters and receivers are used.
It is however not possible when using the known methods and devices to locate complex arrangements of objects relatively to each other and/or relative to a fixed reference system without that the objects emit for instance signals.